Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho said he would be more mature on his return to
the Premier League but his combustible nature has shown itself in a
succession of rows

Petr Cech knows Jose Mourinho almost as well as anyone at Chelsea and, when the subject turned during pre-season to the so-called ‘Happy One’, he was astute enough to reserve judgment about whether his manager’s relaxed mood represented a permanent change. “Is he any different? I think only the season will show,” said Cech.

Eighteen matches into the campaign and, with Chelsea having already suffered three losses, the stresses of competitive football are beginning to provide an answer. He has been more restrained but only within the context of his past record as not just one of the best managers in football history but also among the most combustible.

Nothing has happened this season on the scale of past controversies involving Anders Frisk, the South Central ambulance service, Arsene Wenger, Tito Vilanova, Xabi Alonso and Sergio Ramos, but it has hardly been all sweetness and light either.

Mourinho himself arrived back in England during the summer with the prediction that he would be more mature than when he last worked in the Premier League but also with the admission that he could not change his basic nature. That basic nature, of course, involves rarely turning away from a confrontation, defending his team at all costs and, should he see an advantage for his players, willingly wading into some psychological warfare.

Aside from subtle moments of mischief during the summer in relation to Wayne Rooney’s England prospects, the first big change in Mourinho’s demeamour actually happened just 48 hours before the start of the Premier League season. Having made largely complimentary remarks about his rivals (even Wenger), he pointedly claimed that the past two champions, Manchester United and Manchester City, were significantly inferior to his old Chelsea team. Since then, Mourinho has mentioned City’s spending at regular intervals.

He got embroiled in an entertaining exchange with Jamie Redknapp and Ruud Gullit over Juan Mata’s omission from his team, appeared to hint at a Uefa conspiracy after losing the European Super Cup to Bayern Munich, upset Manuel Pellegrini with his exuberant celebrations against Manchester City, made public a disciplinary incident involving Eden Hazard and, on Saturday, enraged West Brom after calling Jonas Olsson a “mickey mouse” player. For most managers, that would amount to an unusually lively start to the season. For Mourinho, it has still been relatively restrained.

The key point about this second honeymoon, of course, is that we have all been here before. There was much talk of the new ‘Mellow Mourinho’ in the summer of 2007. He then left by mutual consent two months later.

That is not to suggest that Mourinho is following a similar path just now. Just that the unique pressure and tensions of matches – rather than any amount of good intentions – are what generally shape the behaviour of most managers. In general, Mourinho does seem genuinely happy in his work and the honesty of his press conferences should be applauded rather than criticised.

At the start of the season, he talked about the “responsibility” he now feels as one of the senior Premier League managers and there has certainly been evidence of the effort he has been making. Would the old Mourinho really have apologised for any offence caused to Pellegrini and also applauded Redknapp's qualities as a pundit? Probably not.

Even so, as the season unfolds, it is hard not to think back to Cech’s analysis, Mourinho’s own admission about his personality and, above all, that old saying about leopards and spots.